Vietnam tourism channel to be launched

A tourism channel on Vietnam will officially be aired on October 9 on a VCTV channel of Vietnam Television. The channel will introduce Vietnam’s attractive destinations to tourists and promote tourism activities. The channel’s programme was directly produced from local and foreign sources with many interesting topics. The “Destinations at weekends” column in particular will introduce beautiful landscapes throughout the nation. The channel is the first tourism one in Vietnam and is expected to expand international coverage to attract more foreign tourists to Vietnam.

First Sheraton on Beach in Vietnam Celebrates Opening

(CPV) - Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and East Ocean Real Estate & Tourist Joint Stock Company officially christened the first Sheraton beach property in Vietnam on May 5th. This is the first internationally renown five-star hotel in Nha Trang. Located on the sunny south-central coast, less than an hour’s flight from Ho Chi Minh City, the 30-story Sheraton Nha Trang Hotel & Spa drinks in views of one of the world’s most beautiful bays from virtually every space, including all 284 guest rooms. From the ornate lobby chandelier made of glass seagulls to top-floor suites bedecked in earthed-tinged furnishings, the entire hotel exudes a harmonious relationship with the region’s beaches and maritime environment. “The hotel is in one of the most beautiful beach resort destinations in the country and offers visitors a variety of sites to explore and a wide selection of restaurants, markets and exciting adventures,” said Wayne Buckingham, Regional Vice President - Starwood Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore. The appearance of the Sheraton is expected to raise the level of the trademark of Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa, attract more cultural and tourism events to the coastal city and contribute to offering more jobs for local workers.

Director recognises Ha Long Bay’s potential

The Director of New7Wonders Foundation, Jean-Paul De La Fuente, has called on Vietnam to launch a national campaign to promote Ha Long Bay’s image and attempt to gain the title of a New7Wonders attraction. Jean-Paul made the statement in an interview with The Thao & Van Hoa (Sports & Culture) newspaper after concluding a working session with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on October 4. He said the publicity campaign was necessary in the final rounds of the competition to increase public awareness of the election, which should involve the Government. Brazil’s President took part in voting for its key natural attraction as it was part of the national pride and honour, said the chief of the world body evaluating new world wonders. He said he understood that at this point, all Vietnamese considered Ha Long bay as the biggest wonder of the nation, which he said needs massive promotion and election campaigns to promote its image. Jean-Paul advised Vietnam to avoid routines in campaigning while creating special initiatives to attract public attention, especially the young generation, to vote. He said pictures of the site were not convincing enough as his body had received numerous beautiful pictures from 28 candidates around the world. These pictures should be accompanied with strong messages, he emphasised. Colourful figures should be invited to pose in the scene and take part in voting and messages on Ha Long Bay should be conveyed to international tourists, Paul advised. The voting in the final round will be expanded to telephone calls and messaging, in addition to the internet.  He said he expected the Vietnamese people would bring their national spirit, which he saw with his own eyes in the Thang Long-Hanoi millennium anniversary, to the Ha Long Bay campaign. The competition will not be decided by a group of people but by a majority in the world, Jean-Paul emphasised./.

Vietnam – Thailand target “1 million tourists in 2015”

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Vietnam National Tourism Administration (VNTA) will coordinate to discuss ways to carry out the program, namely “1 million tourists in 2015”. This was said by Mr. Sansern Ngaorungsi, Deputy Governor of TAT for International Marketing (Asia and South Pacific) in a conference introducing tourism development targets in 2010 of TAT in Ho Chi Minh City. The two sides focused on plans to exchange information, invite journalists of Vietnam and Thailand to visit and report Vietnam’s tourism, and invite travel agents from the two countries to take part in exhibition fairs. Mr. Ngaorungsi said that conferences to realize these plans will be kicked off in the next week. In 2009; 370,000 Vietnamese traveled to Thailand and more than 100,000 Thailand toured Vietnam. In the first eight months of 2010, 240,000 Vietnamese tourists visited Thailand while the figure of Thailand to Vietnam was 120,000. Vietnam was ranked third among ASEAN tourists visiting Thailand. Currently, there are more than 80 flights a week from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City by Vietnam Airlines, Thai Airways, Air Asia, and Lufthansa to Bangkok. Tourists from the northeast of Thailand can travel by cars to Vietnam’s central province and vice versa.

More than 3.7 million foreigners visited Vietnam in nine months

(CPV) – The General Statistics Office of Vietnam reported more than 383,400 foreign tourists visited Vietnam in September 2010, an increase of 26% from September 2009. This figure raised the total foreign tourists to Vietnam in the first nine months of 2010 to more than 3.7 million. Compared to the same period of 2009, almost all tourist markets saw increases, such as Cambodia, up 92.2%; China, up 89.2%; Thailand, up 39.5%; the Republic of Korea, up 29.4%; Australia, up 27.9%; Malaysia, up 23.1%; Japan, up 18.7%; France, up 12%; and the US, up 2.4%. Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has just agreed with the proposal to grant free visas to foreign tourists between October and December. The policy will be applied to foreign visitors who book package tours under a tourist promotions package called “Vietnam - Your destination”. Experts said that sharp increases in the number of foreign tourists to Vietnam over the past months is because promotion policies of the local tourism sector in major markets became effective. The 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi and its related events offered opportunities for travel agents to launch promotion campaigns to attract foreign tourists to Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular.

Five sightseeing tours to Hanoi’s old streets launched

On October 2nd, the Dong Xuan Joint-stock Company launched five tramcar sightseeing tours for Hanoi’s old streets to meet the increasing travel demand during the capital’s millennium birthday. The five tours will take tourists to discover specific traits of old streets, to visit trade houses and artisans along old streets, study religious culture at old tempers and pagodas, study gastronomy culture, tour trade shops on the 36 streets of Hanoi and buy goods at Dong Xuan Market. The tour to discover specific traits of the old streets will take tourists along 19 streets. Tourists can choose three of the listed historic sites: the house at 48 Hang Ngang, the Dong Xuan Market, Huyen Thuyen Pagoda, Bach Ma Temple, O Quan Chuong, the quarter house at 87 Ma May, Hanoi’s Cathedral, the Great Opera House, the Statue of King Ly Thai To, and Ngoc Son Temple for a 30-minute visit at each location. Earlier, since July when tramcars were put into operation, the Dong Xuan Joint-stock Company provided tours along 28 old streets and around Hoan Kiem Lake.